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A surgeon waits within.

WIFE

Willing to leave it.

'Tis guilty of sweet blood, innocent blood.

Murder has took this chamber with full hands,

And will ne'er out as long as the house stands.

Exeunt.

Scene viii. A road just outside Yorkshire

Enter Husband as being thrown off his horse, and falls.

HUSBAND

Oh, stumbling jade, the spavin overtake thee, the fifty diseases stop thee!

Oh, I am sorely bruis'd! Plague founder thee!

Thou runn'st at ease and pleasure, heart, of chance

To throw me now with a flight o' th' town,

In such plain even ground! 'Sfoot, a man may dice upon't, and throw away the meadows, filthy beast!

CRY WITHIN

Follow, follow, follow!

HUSBAND

Ha? I hear sounds of men, like hew and cry.

Up, up, and struggle to thy horse! Make on!

Dispatch that little beggar and all's done!

[CRY WITHIN]

Here, this way, this way!

HUSBAND

At my back? Oh,

What fate have I! My limbs deny me go.

My will is bated; beggary claims a part.

Oh, could I here reach to the infant's heart!

Enter Master of the College, three Gentlemen, and others with halberds. [They] find him.

ALL

Here, here, yonder, yonder!

MASTER

Unnatural, flinty, more than barbarous:

The Scythians in their marble-hearted fates

Could not have acted more remorseless deeds

In their relentless natures than these of thine!

Was this the answer I long waited on,

The satisfaction of thy prisoned brother?

HUSBAND

Why, he can have no more on's than our skins,

And some of 'em want but fleaing.

FIRST GENTLEMAN

Great sins have made him impudent.

MASTER

H'as shed so much blood that he cannot blush.

SECOND GENTLEMAN

Away with him; bear him along to the justice!

A gentleman of worship dwells at hand;

There shall his deeds be blaz'd.

HUSBAND

Why, all the better.

My glory 'tis to have my action known.

I grieve for nothing, but I miss'd of one.

MASTER

There's little of a father in that grief.

Bear him away.

Exeunt.

Scene ix. The Knight's house

Enters a Knight with two or three Gentlemen.

KNIGHT

Endangered so his wife? Murdered his children?

FOURTH GENTLEMAN

So the cry comes.

KNIGHT

I am sorry I e'er knew him,

That ever he took life and natural being

From such an honoured stock and fair descent

Till this black minute without stain or blemish.

FOURTH GENTLEMAN

Here come the men.

Enter the Master of the College and the rest, with the [Husband] prisoner.

KNIGHT

The serpent of his house?

I'm sorry for this time that I am in place of justice.

MASTER

Please you, sir.

KNIGHT

Do not repeat it twice: I know too much.

Would it had ne'er been thought on.

Sir, I bleed for you.

FOURTH GENTLEMAN

Your father's sorrows are alive in men:

What made you show such monstrous cruelty?

HUSBAND

In a word, sir,

I have consum'd all, play'd away Longacre,

And I thought it the charitablest deed I could do

To cozen beggary, and knock my house o' th' head.

KNIGHT

Oh, in a cooler blood you will repent it!

HUSBAND

I repent now, that one's left unkill'd,

My brat at nurse. Oh, I would full fain have wean'd him!

KNIGHT

Well, I do not think but in tomorrow's judgment

The terror will sit closer to your soul

When the dread thought of death remembers you;

To further which, take this sad voice from me:

Never was act play'd more unnaturally.

HUSBAND

I thank you, sir.

KNIGHT

Go, lead him to the jail,

Where justice claims all; there must pity fail.

HUSBAND

Come, come, away with me.

Exit [the Husband as] prisoner.

MASTER

Sir, you deserve the worship of your place;

Would all did so: in you the law is grace.

KNIGHT

It is my wish it should be so. Ruinous man,

The desolation of his house, the blot

Upon his predecessors' honour'd name:

That man is nearest shame that is past shame.

[Exeunt.]

Scene x. Outside the Husband's house

Enter Husband with the officers, the Master and Gentlemen as going by his house.

HUSBAND

I am right against my house, seat of my ancestors.

I hear my wife's alive, but much endangered:

Let me entreat